The provision of a service execution platform for providing multi-media and IP based services requires the control of network resources through a number of complex protocols. The protocols can include legacy protocols based on SS7 and other SIGTRAN protocols, and also IP based protocols such as HTTP, SIP, Radius, Diameter, MSRP, MRCP, RTSP and so on. Application servers such as HttpServlet, SIP Servlet and so on provide an environment for applications which use a particular protocol, but it is difficult to adapt such servers to new protocols.
To provide for portable service applications, it is known to provide a further API which can sit on top of a protocol stack to provide a network layer independent API, but again such API's are proliferating, such as the JAIN family of protocol API's. The growing numbers of possible interfaces and protocols can hinder the development and provision of new services and protocols.